Commentator Paul Kissling writes that the first part of the verse indicates that "the material universe is good, not evil; impersonal, not personal"[3] and that the second part reflects the orderly nature of the physical universe.

Franz Delitzsch and others have seen the verse as ushering in the alternation of light and darkness,[4][5] or the creation of time itself.[6][7]

Augustine of Hippo, in his City of God, interprets the verse as describing a division between the holy angels and the unclean angels,[8] pointing out that existence of the sun, moon, and stars implied a division between physical light and dark, but "between that light, which is the holy company of the angels spiritually radiant with the illumination of the truth, and that opposing darkness, which is the noisome foulness of the spiritual condition of those angels who are turned away from the light of righteousness, only [God] Himself could divide."[8] Augustine follows this by suggesting that "God saw the light that it was good" refers to the moral goodness of the angels.[9]

The Zohar contains a number of interpretations of this verse, including the suggestion that "God saw the light that it was good" means that "the universe became lighted up and pervaded throughout with the divine life which preserves it for the common weal and happiness of created and animated beings."[10]

Rashi gives an Aggadic interpretation of this verse, indicating that the light is set apart for the righteous in the World to Come.[11]